Dunfermline: James McPake gives injury update on Pars trio

Manager James McPake also revealed that youngster Andrew Tod will see a specialist tomorrow (Thursday) after he picked up a knee injury whilst playing for the reserves last midweek.

Northern Ireland under-21 cap McCann missed Dunfermline's last league outing, at Ayr United, with a hamstring injury, and wasn't risked for Saturday's Scottish Cup third round win at Edinburgh City.

He was, however, on the pitch sprinting in a post-match warm down, so is set to be available for the crucial Championship clash with Accies at KDM Group East End Park.

Fellow forward Chris Kane, though, will be assessed in the build-up to the game, having missed the game in the capital with a calf problem picked up in training.

"Lewis is back. Chris Kane is touch and go for the weekend, we'll wait and see," McPake said.

"Craig Wighton is still doing work after getting his knee drained and injected. I'm delighted to have Lewis back in particular. We've certainly missed him.

"We were small (in terms of height in the team) on Saturday to be fair. We probably could do it going against a team that aren't a big team, and don't punish you that much from set plays, so you could've got away with it, but just everything to his game that he brings.

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"Even when Lewis isn't in the game, or a game you would say Lewis has been really poor in, you see the way he works and how he can hurt another team. Even on a bad day, Lewis McCann's a good player at this level.

Lewis McCann did sprint work following Dunfermline's win at Edinburgh City. (Image: Craig Brown.) "The way he works, he can play off a side, he can play through the middle, he's adaptable in that sense. Without the ball, defensively, he's really good.

"He has that threat to go and hurt other teams with his pace or just his quality in behind, so I'm delighted to have him back."

McCann had an impact when moved to a wider position against this weekend's opponents when they met in August, which ended in a 1-0 loss for the Pars.

McPake noted: "He was excellent actually when we moved him out there, and probably created three or four chances in that second half that should have been goals.

"Since I've been here, in terms of the effort, the attitude, everything you would expect from a player, he does it week in, week out.

"He's an important player for us."

Addressing Kane's injury, McPake said it was not the calf that he has had previous issues with: "Had it been the calf that he had all the problems with, we'd be a lot more worried about it.

Chris Kane missed Saturday's match with a calf problem. (Image: Craig Brown.) "He's responding really well and hopefully tomorrow and Friday we get him out on the pitch. I don't think he'll make it, but they're (the medical team) telling me there's a chance."

Meanwhile Tod, who agreed a season-long loan with East Fife in September, is to be further assessed after being injured playing for the reserves in a match with Dundee United last Tuesday.

On the 18-year-old, McPake said: "There's damage to his medial ligament and another couple of compartments within the knee, so he'll see a specialist tomorrow with the physio.

"We'll have a bit of clarity on that tomorrow whether it's a surgical approach or if we can, which is hopefully the way with Andrew being so young, treat it conservatively and get it back.

"Fingers crossed we get good news tomorrow."

Andrew Tod is to see a specialist over a knee injury. (Image: Craig Brown.) When asked what the injury could mean for his loan agreement, the boss added: "I think we'll know more when we speak to the surgeon tomorrow.

"We had the recall option in January anyway, which, if truth be told, there was a chance that we would have done that anyway just to get him back in.

"The hope was to get him out, get him six months of football, if he does well, we would have brought him back here anyway.

"He's really unfortunate, really unlucky. I'm gutted for him, but we'll get him right."